The embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for removing a solute from a solution. More particularly, the embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for water desalinization.
Known water desalinization systems are used to produce potable water from seawater and/or other sources of salt or brackish water. Some known water desalinization systems include filtration systems to remove the solute within the source water, such as, for example, reverse osmosis filtering. Known reverse osmosis desalinization systems produce filtered water by pressurizing the source water to produce the “reverse osmosis” flow (i.e., the flow across a specialized membrane from the area of high solute concentration to the area of low solute concentration). In some known systems, the pressure of the source water can be between 800 and 1000 psi, thus resulting in high-energy consumption during operation. The specialized membranes and/or filters also require periodic replacement and/or maintenance, thereby adding to the cost and complexity of operation. Moreover, some known reverse osmosis desalinization systems have recovery ratios (i.e., the ratio between the flow rate of filtered water to the flow rate of source water) of as low as ten percent.
Other known water desalinization systems produce potable water by distilling the source water. For example, multi-stage flash desalinization systems boil the source water to produce a vapor in multiple stages of operation. The vapor is then condensed to produce the desalinized water. Although the multiple stages are arranged such that the cool inlet water is heated by the vapor as the vapor is condensed, known multi-stage flash desalinization systems consume large amounts of energy to produce the vapor. The boilers of known multi-stage flash desalinization systems also require periodic cleaning and/or maintenance, thereby adding to the cost and complexity of operation.
Yet other known water desalinization systems vaporize the seawater for subsequent condensation and recovery by atomizing the inlet water into ambient air. Such known systems often pressurize the inlet water (for example, to pressures of 100 psi or higher) and/or heat the ambient air, thus resulting in high-energy consumption during operation. Moreover, such known systems often include a long flow path (e.g., similar to a cooling tower flow path) within which the atomized inlet water is evaporated, which increases the size and complexity of the system.
Thus, a need exists for improved systems and methods for water desalinization.